How to ensure the transfer of knowledge during offboarding
A personal handover does not always work when employees leave your company.
leave your company. Successors find it difficult to familiarize themselves with the tasks afterwards, and the knowledge
knowledge of certain tools or processes that the previous employee had "in their head" has left the companywith them. So how can you ensure the transfer of knowledge during offboarding - and why is this so important?
How does offboarding affect my attractiveness as an employer?
Reviews and ratings about employers are publicly visible on Kununu, Glassdoor and LinkedIn, and potential candidates use these portals and social media to find out more about you. In general, it is therefore advantageous to organize not only the working time itself, but also the offboarding process in such a way that it is positive for both sides.
One way to achieve this is by giving departing employees a quick and easy way to pass on their knowledge to their successors. Or even better: if you have already ensured that the knowledge is documented during the course of his or her employment.
How do I keep the knowledge in the company during the offboarding process?
As with all processes, a structured and well thought-out approach is also important for offboarding. From the handover of the laptop to the final feedback meeting, all important points should be recorded in a good plan. There are numerous checklists and templates available online for this purpose.
However, at the latest when the employee has been absent for a week, it becomes clear what has not been considered: It's not just an employee who leaves - suddenly the knowledge and know-how accumulated over several years of work experience is also missing.
We give you 4 tips to ensure that the important topic of "knowledge transfer" is not neglected in your offboarding process:
Tip 1: Document knowledge early and continuously
One of the most important aspects of a successful offboarding program is timing. Subject matter experts in departments must be encouraged to document and share their knowledge on a daily basis - not just when they are about to leave the company. This approach ensures that information is shared when it is most up-to-date and that knowledge is imparted to employees when they are also dealing with the subject matter.
To achieve this, companies need to provide software that makes this knowledge transfer quick and easy. Complicated processes or input screens frustrate users and lead to a justified refusal on the part of employees. An uncomplicated, intuitive solution helps to ensure that knowledge documentation becomes part of the work routine.
Tip 2: Provide learning paths for new employees
Learning paths are series of short, sequenced training videos that guide new employees through processes or provide important key information for their specific job. These can also be important lessons, tricks and hints. With the help of user-friendly and secure video technology, subject matter experts can create their own learning paths and make them easily available.
New employees can then learn directly from their predecessors through the videos and follow the existing learning modules. This can be done, for example, via linked content in an Excel document or on a SharePoint page. The storage location of these learning paths is secondary. The primary goal must be to give the subject matter experts the opportunity to make their knowledge available.
Tip 3: Enable global and mobile knowledge transfer
In large companies, it often happens that employees change areas of responsibility and that certain tasks are then assigned to colleagues in another office or at a completely different location. The transfer of the necessary knowledge is difficult to manage with classroom training, as this is time-consuming, costly and organizationally complex. Either the knowledge is not extensive enough for in-house training or the potential group of recipients is too small.
This is where "learning nuggets" can help: Learning content prepared in short formthat isquick to consume and easy to store . Such nuggets are particularly useful and effective for decentralized teams or departments. Ideally, they should be available on-demand. This way, employees are not dependent on timetables and can engage with the content when they are particularly receptive and when the knowledge is needed. In view of flexible working hours and locations, it is essential that these learning nuggets are compatible with mobile devices and can be consumed on the go.
Tip 4: Establish a reliable platform for knowledge transfer
In order to enable a smooth transfer of knowledge, an appropriate IT infrastructure must be made available. Think about how you can archive the content created in a meaningful way and make it accessible in a portal, for example. As this is usually internal company information, data protection must also be taken into account.
In addition to offboarding topics, such a portal can also contain other topics such as onboarding, best practices and summaries. An intranet, a collaboration tool or a learning management system such as Cornerstone On Demand can be used for this purpose.
Videos are the key to success
Videos are the ideal format to ensure successful knowledge transfer. Studies have shown that the best learning results are achieved with a combination of images and sound, as these appeal to different types of learners.
This is precisely the point that we at SlidePresenter address in our Software-as-a-Service solution. With SlidePresenter, you can create your own video recordings, combine them with your existing content (e.g. PowerPoint slides or screen recordings) and even customize them with quizzes, links and subtitles.
Thanks to its easy integration into your intranet, LMS or other tools, SlidePresenter is ideal for making your offboarding efficient, fast and, above all, sustainable. When employees leave, their knowledge will remain in your company in the future. And with our servers located in Germany, data protection is also taken into account.